Improvement in treating cotton and linen waste



UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

E. N. HORSFORD, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN TREATING CGTTON AND LINEN WASTE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 18.203, dated September 15, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EBEN NoR'roN Hons- FORD, of Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex, in the State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Method of Purifying Cotton and Linen Factory W'aste; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full and exact description thereof.

Cotton and linen factory waste is employed to wipe the journals and bearings of machincry, and contains particles of metallic iron, and sometimes, to a small extent, particles of brass and bronze mixed with oily matters used for lubrication, and which become resinous and gummy with time.

The plan usually adopted for cleansing cotton and linen factory waste consists in repeated boilings Willl alkalisoda or lime, or both. This treatment, at the best, does not effectually remove the gummy and resinous mat ters derived from the oil, and does not remove the metallic particles, except to a small extent as an incidental mechanical effect.

and carefully washed, after which it is to be boiled in a solution of soap and caustic lye or a. simple alkaline solution.

The effect of the preparatory treatment with acid is to dissolve the metallic particles found in the stock, as described, and to render the oily, gummy, and resinous matters taken up, as before mentioned, much more easily soluble in the soap and alkali solution with which the stock is to be subsequently treated The quantity of hydrochloric acid to be employed will of course vary with the nature and conditionofthewaste. Forordinarystock four per cent. of the weight of the stock will give about the right strengthof acid, while the maximum and minimum may vary-from eight to one per cent. I also find about the usual quantity of alkali as commonly employed sufficient; but I consider the addition of soap a great advantage.

Instead of hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid or soluble sesqui or bi sulphates or acid mixtures may be employed, my object being the employment of acheap acid which will dissolve the metals and facilitate the subsequent action of alkali or alkali and soap solution on the fatty and resinous matters present without injury to the fiber of the stock. I prefer the hydrochloric acid.

I do not claim the use of acid for the purpose of renewing any of the mordants or native resinous or coloring matters from raw textile or fibrous materials; but

What I do claim as my invention is- The use of acid to dissolve metallic particles in cotton and linen factory waste, substantially as above described.

' E. N. HORSFORD. Witnesses:

W. G. STEARNS, G. M. OSGOOD. 

